San Diego authorities have considered solutions ranging from falconry to fence removal, in an effort to ease the odor of bird droppings at La Jolla Cove, city records show.

The documents were received from Councilwoman Sheri Lightner’s office through a request for public records on the bird poop problem, which has drawn unwelcome attention to the picturesque cove since fall.

“La Jolla finds itself caught in a morass of state regulations — and it stinks. Literally,” Lightner stated in a Nov. 1 letter to Gov. Jerry Brown. “Due to years of accumulation of bird excrement at La Jolla Cove, there is a noxious stench that pervades much of the Village of La Jolla.”

Recent rains have brought some relief, reducing the smell from an overpowering stench — likened by one resident to a mix of “rotting vinegar and human body odor” — to a more bearably brackish scent. But city officials said they’re still seeking long-term solutions.

Lightner’s office has coordinated odor elimination plans, but deferred to Mayor Bob Filner for updates on the problem. His office did not provide details, but Filner said in recent interview that he would take a “common sense approach” to poop removal.

“We’re in discussions with federal and legal authorities,” Filner said last week. “I hope it happens soon. Otherwise I’m going to come up instead and hose it down.”

Kanani Brown, a spokeswoman for the California Coastal Commission, said officials recently discussed vacuuming the bird poop, but didn’t provide a proposal on how they would do it. She said, however, that procedure might not require permits from her agency or from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.

“Removing would be preferable to washing it into the ocean for us,” Brown said.

The foul smell drew national headlines and local ire late last year, as business owners and residents complained that the odor was turning stomachs and deterring customers. City officials received dozens of pitches for products and procedures aimed at solving the problem, correspondence showed, and considered myriad ways to stem the stench.

They also confronted a maze of state and federal regulations on water quality, wildlife and other issues that limited the actions they could take.

An e-mail from from Lightner’s representative Erin Demorest to La Jolla community leaders detailed solutions that included installing bird spikes, adding removable tarps to cover the rocks, building offshore roosting areas, removing part of the fencing to let other animals scale the bluffs and scare away birds, or employing falconers to drive off the offending gulls, pelicans and cormorants.

Each came with its own drawbacks. Spikes or tarps would be unsightly, city officials noted. Washing off the rocks — floated as a possible remedy — would run afoul of water quality rules.

Jorge Herrera, a Glendora-based falconer whose raptors deter nuisance gulls at Hotel Del Coronado, said San Diego officials contacted him last year about patrolling La Jolla Cove, but said he was unable to consider the job because of other commitments. It’s unclear whether the city is still considering using birds of prey at the cove.

Numerous vendors pitched non-toxic solutions that promised to neutralize the odor. But city documents indicated that some of those products lacked full safety documentation, and any would require extensive permitting.

“The permit processes for any odor control products are likely to be very lengthy, costly and subject to extensive testing,” Demorest wrote in an e-mail to one prospective vendor.

The documents also discuss testing to check levels of ammonia and E. coli bacteria on the guano-covered bluffs, citing health concerns about inhalation of the offending compounds.

But draft meeting notes from a December city staff meeting state that the smells aren’t likely a health hazard, but rather a nuisance odor. Measuring the stinky substances would be “relatively expensive,” the document states, but have “limited usefulness.”